What Business Lessons Can Be Gained from the Latest Super Bowl?

Date

Mar 17, 2017

If you are a sports fan it was hard not to enjoy Super Bowl LI,
unless you were an Atlanta fan. As we reflect on the game it is
interesting how it mirrored business and offers valuable insight
into critical lessons that we all can benefit from. The obvious
lesson from Super Bowl LI is simple: Never Give Up.

Let’s examine some of the specific lessons the game
presented:

Tunnel Vision/Follow Your Game Plan – In the first half,
Atlanta dominated with a well thought out and executed strategy.
Then they became conservative and the flow of the game changed.
Their competition(Pats) didn’t change their game plan. They made
changes inside their plan to adapt to the current conditions. They
didn’t modify the overall goal, they stayed laser focused on the
result. Has that ever happened to your business? Sometimes we
achieve success and forget what variables created that success.
When your game plan is working, trust it, keep focused on it and
don’t let your foot off the gas.

Cool Under Pressure/Rely on Strategy not Emotion – How
many of you have felt like the Patriots in the first half; getting
pounded and outplayed by your competition? Many business people
tend to panic and lose their cool. Successful people stay calm
under pressure and do not over-react to situations. All events are
inherently neutral, we put a positive or negative spin on them.
Brady and Belichick were calm, quickly analyzed the situation, then
adapted and executed a successful game plan. When situations like
this affect your company, take a step back, take a deep breath and
focus on a solution, not worrying about the situation. Remember,
there are no problems, just opportunities for solutions.

Mistakes Aren’t fatal – Dale Carnegie once said; “The
successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a
different way”. How many mistakes did the Patriots make in the
first half? Mistakes are inevitable in both our personal and
business life. It is how we respond to each mistake that will mold
who we are and how successful our business will become. So, how can
we best handle this situation.

Acknowledge – admit that you made a mistake, it
happens

Apologize – to whom it is appropriate to

Opportunity – view it has a positive opportunity for the
better, not a negative

Solution – use creative thinking to come up with one or
more solutions

Action – implement your solutions and monitor
feedback

Move on – do not continue to relive the mistake, you
have already acknowledged it, so don’t dwell on it

The Patriots could have become emotional about their mistakes,
but they regrouped with a successful solution and found a way to
win the game.

Success Isn’t Final – The Patriots are the Super Bowl
champions, but players and coaches are already hard at work
preparing for next season. Far too many companies tend to rest on
their success, feeling they have finally made it, as Atlanta did
when they went up 25 points. As soon as that mentality sets it, you
can be guaranteed a competitor is planning and working twice as
hard as you to become number 1. Congratulate yourself on your
success and get right back to planning and execution. Napoleon Hill
said it best: “Patience, persistence and perspiration make an
unbeatable combination of success”.

Scott Stickel is the Managing Partner and CEO of Profit
Street, an online software analytics company specifically designed
for franchises. Profit Street offers automated business
informational processing via predictive analytics and prescriptive
solutions to help increase franchisee profit margins. Scott can be
reached at scott.stickel@profitstreet.com.

Markus Stickel is the Managing Partner and Chief
Analytics Officer of Profit Street. He is a recognized leader
within the franchise industry, with over 25 years’ experience
consulting with over 300 companies on business operations. He can
be reached at mark.stickel@profitstreet.com.